I know there are other good organizations, good players, etc. but I’ve always believed the Red Wings “family” (which at its worst, you could argue, includes holding onto the long-time veterans maybe longer than other teams would rather than trade/release them) is one of the reasons the Wings stand out, their loyalty to their people, including hearing Vlady and others coming by the locker room, too. In the transient 21st Century, there’s something to be said about the value of generations in that locker room and in the organization (Chelios, Draper, Lidstrom, Lindsay, Howe, Vladdy, Stevie Y while he was here, etc.) and as you noted George, McCrimmon’s son—they take care of their own.

The Wings also reach out to other organizations to take care of their own.

The Wings have ensured that Maureen McCrimmon and her daughter and son are still busy with hockey during the winter—because they’re now a billet family for Peter Karmanos’s Plymouth Whalers, hosting a young man from September to at least April.

Karmanos and Compuware are obviously big Ilitch/Little Caesars rivals, but you take care of your own by being smart enough to know when somebody else can help them better than you’re able to do.

A few years ago, Chicago invited their famous alums to the arena and have done a good job in trying to copy what Detroit genuinely has. Stan Mikita and Denis Savard are around the arena and Bobby Hull is at the concession stand. It’s not the same thing.

Posted by
MOWingsfan19
from I really like our team on 05/24/13 at 09:05 AM ET

I wonder who walked around the Minnesota locker room to congratulate/console the Engall sisters. Oh that’s right, no one. The Wings are an organization people are lucky to work for. It just works so well. Yeah they have blind loyalty to some guys past their prime, but overall the way they treat their players and staff is just top notch. Where do I send my resume?

I would consider Slava Fetisov up there with Mr. Howe and Mr. Lindsay. What that man had to go through for his fellow players in the Soviet Union, man, I remain humbled by his courage. THAT is old soul.

Posted by
SYF
from the C7.R, flyin' low and feelin' mean on 05/24/13 at 07:35 PM ET

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